Stripes & Graphics: Bruce Ottway

Bruce Ottway had been hand lettering for a few years when a friend asked if he could pinstripe his street rod for him—a $50,000 1930 Ford. Bruce told him he hadn’t pinstriped anything before. “Well, Bruce,” his friend said, “it’s high time you did.” And Bruce’s pinstriping career was underway. Thirty-eight years later, Bruce is still pulling lines.

Before long he was striping cars for used car dealers and auto reconditioners. Murray, Kentucky, had became a used car center in the 1980s, and buying, selling and reconditioning used cars was a huge part of the local economy.

“I pinstriped straight lines all day, every day for several years,” Bruce says. “But I was also in the sign business. It was very difficult doing both. At its peak, I was working for well over a hundred car dealers locally.”